Make the Best Work Possible

The fragmentation of Web2 social media continues.

The launch of Substack notes has been a glorious mess. LinkedIn is suddenly full of old friends shitposting like there’s no tomorrow – upsetting the social grifteconomy of the paltform. Bluesky launched without a block / mute function. Web3 protocol Farcaster, continues to grow its cosy distributed network architecture, with both Insta and letterboxed-like services launching recently. Who knows what is going on over on Mastodon – everyone ok over there?

It’s total chaos. I love it.

Meanwhile ChatGPT is the Fastest Growing App In The History Of Web Applications. France, Germany, Canada, and Ireland are looking to join Italy in banning or at least investigating ChatGPT.

My blog got its first hit from perplexity.ai, an app that has been my default search engine months – it’s way more useful than Google. BingChat/MicrosoftAI tool arrived in my Android phones swiftkey keyboard this week too.

I have been speaking with GTP-4 multiple times a day. It’s a bit of a submissive intellectual sparing partner but I am getting $20 of value a month out of it, thats for sure.

All in all it’s an interesting time. Web 2 breakdown – with no clear replacement – and the explosive rise of AI assist tools.

I’ve been talking to fellow online bloggers/creators/writers/podcasters/youtubers in the back channels about it all. And everyone is telling a similar story:

Traffic is wild and bumpy, like rough seas in a storm. No one seems to know where the spikes in traffic they are seeing is coming from – as its not Twitter (and hasn’t been for years) .. and also no one seems to care where it’s coming from.

People are making work for themselves again. A freeing realisation, why bother making content to please an algorithm when you can:

1. Make the best work possible.
2. Make work that is worth making and then sharing it.

People over valued Twitter as a social network. Not just in terms its cultural infleunce, but the effort and time people spent building followers there was a waste of time.

Other social networks are good but really who cares. Just do your thing where ever you want to do it.

If it’s good people will find it.

If you like something share it with others. It costs you nothing.

In other news, I can’t belive I’m 10 weeks away from weeknotes #300. What should I do for it?

Permanently Moved

Lore as Lens

The growing importance of lore reflects the rise of a new kind cultural sense-making and social technology.

Full Show Notes: https://thejaymo.net/2023/04/15/301-2313-lore-as-lens/

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Calls calls calls
• Recorded an episode with the Agitator boys
• Research
• Interviewed for a magazine
• Got some work done ‘for me’

Been a productive week!

Terminal Access

Huw Lemmey posted an incredible essay behind the paywall this week called The Only Way Through – is Through. Posted on day 17, 400kms into his 1,400km pilgrimage across Spain.

what is so powerful and transfiguring about journeys like pilgrimages is something that happens to you, that you experience, that is a knowledge that is beyond language, like dreams.

Dipping the Stacks

Hanging out: Americans report fewer friends. Could the cure be simple?

Pushed further into isolation by the pandemic, we’re all losing the ability to engage in what I view as the pinnacle of human interaction: sitting around with friends and talking shit. I agree with Liming that no one is down to hang out anymore, and agree with her that it’s a “quiet catastrophe.”

Over $30 Million Worth Of Funkos Are Headed To The Landfill

The company that makes Funko Pop! collectibles is in so much trouble it’s preparing to throw hundreds of thousands of its pop culture-inspired figurines into the garbage.

Beanie Babies 2.0

It’s time to take back control of what we read on the internet – The Atlantic

Social-media algorithms show us what they want us to see, not what we want to see. But there is an alternative.

The Kids are Not Okay

Is This Core Case for the Social Media Hypothesis Convincing? Is It The Phones?
Mostly, yes.

The Brave Women Who Saved the Collected Texts of Hildegard of Bingen ‹ Literary Hub

Against all the odds, Margarete persuaded the Soviet authorities to lend her the manuscript to photograph it.

This should be a movie.

Reading

I’m still reading Monolithic Undertow: In Search of Sonic Oblivion by Harry Sword. God damn this book is so god damn good. If you like Drone music, extreme noise, doom metal whatever read this book immediately! you won’t be sorry.

I’m dipping in and out of Curating Simulated Storyworlds – PHD thesis by James Ryan from 2018 when I have spare moments. A remarkable piece of work.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

in love! (bouquet for heather) – Kaho Matsui

I’ve fallen in love(!) with this album. According to the bandcamp description this 2022 album was made as a 22nd birthday present for Matsui’s girlfriend heather.

This album swirls with passion, a mix of live guitar, melodic toybox like instruments, lo-fi breaks, field recordings, and glitch. I love how each track goes though moods, seasons maybe. The closing track sunspot builds and swells with more and more layers of sound and noise over an (improvised?) piano line? It’s really wonderful.

Sounds like spring.

ssssmilinggggg

Ethel Cain @ Coachella

It’s no secret I’m a big Ethel Cain fan. The only video from coachella 23 so far is her opening her set with House in Nebraska, a huge but exposing power ballad.

Brave set opener but she smashes it.

Remember Kids: